HALion String Edition from Steinberg/Wizoo features sections of 8 double basses, 10 cellos, 12 violas and 16 violins, and offers fantastic playing feel and a sound character suited to any musical style from classical to contemporary. The top-notch recording techniques used gives the HALion String Edition a warm character, an outstanding sound quality and an unobtrusive, natural ambience. Each section is provided in two versions you can combine freely with other sections. A multitude of presets make arranging and combining sections a breeze.

HALion Player allows full control over articulations such as crescendo, bowing or portamento. The additional HALion programs allow creative editing and limitless combination with other sounds in HALion.

this is a great value for the price, the sounds are excellent, and 24 bit to boot!

there are many different articulations available, although getting to all of these articulations has been somewhat of a challenge for me :(

really, this is the main thing for a good string sample library, playability. In my opinion, as of now, this doesnt quite have it yet. perhaps it is my host, perhaps it is my lack of experience with keyswitching or sample libraries...

however, it would be easier if it was dead simple.

despite all of this, I will try to learn, for the sounds and articulations are more than worth it.

this program needs alot more work for playability.

edit:

o yeah, stability... I have NEVER had a problem with streaming or crashing so far, with Fruityloops 3.5.6Read more

The string collection by itself is fantastic and very well designed. I think this collection is well suited for pop and other kind of music as it has a bright and punchy sound that cuts out through mixes. For a non experimented orchestral programmer like me I found the preset very easy to use. The Xswitch and Xfades banks benefit from the mod wheel which changes the accent and velocity of the orchestra. This allows a great and easy expression. I listened to the demos on the steinberg web site but they are not so impressive. I rather suggest if you consider this collection to listen to Claudius Bruese strings on wizoosounds (which is the same collection). And this collection is 24 bit !That is for the good points.Then if you plan to use this collection under any other host than Cubase, then forget it. The player is the most instable VST I ever used, preset management is very buggy and is not usable in Sonar (despite the DXi logo).Streaming works in other hosts (and some users report the issue on Cubase too) works few minutes and then stops. For such issues, Steinberg customer support didn't have much solutions and their only suggestion was to play it in the Cubase demo and record the output !!Even Cubase users seem to have issues with presets.For documentation, there are many very interesting advices and a great tutorial for programming orchestras and making them sound realist. So I suggest to avoid this collection on other host than Cubase until they make a serious update. But it should be worth to wait, sound and presets are fantastic.Read more